After a few years of being a regular substitute as a pacey winger for Napoli, Mertens was handed a big opportunity with the sale of Higuain to Juventus and new signing Milik set to miss the rest of the season through injury. Transitioning seamlessly into his new role as a false 9, Mertens' pace, movement and technical ability helped him form a lethal front three with Jose Callejon and Lorenzo Insigne. His consecutive hattricks against Cagliari and Torino made him the first to achieve this in Serie A since Pietro Anastasi in 1974. His 28 goals and 11 assists were integral in pushing Napoli to a 3rd place finish and a new club record of 86 points, and his 5 goals and 4 assists also helped Napoli to the 2nd round of the Champions League for the 2nd time in their history. Although the 2017/18 season was less spectacular on a personal level for Mertens, Napoli were even stronger in Serie A, breaking their points record by 5 points and taking the spectacularly dominant Juventus team all the way to the end of the season, and even leading the league for more than half the season.

Mertens' biggest weapons are his acceleration and low centre of gravity that makes him very hard to dispossess, combined with his quick feet and technical ability make him extremely hard for defenders to deal with. Despite him being a winger for much of his career, he has shown himself to be a natural finisher, equally capable of using his smart movement to give himself easier one on one chances or scoring beautiful curling shots from the edge of the box or from free kicks. He has also proven to be a good team player, leading Sarri's high press which lead to lots of goals from quick turnovers, and also possessing good passing abilities and awareness, combining well with his partners in attack, especially with quick flicks and chips. At the time of writing, he is Napoli's 8th top scorer of all time, and will surely surpass legends such as Careca and Altafini in the upcoming season.

Last edited by StuartBannigan on Wed Oct 24, 2018 7:56 pm, edited 6 times in total.

Wow, fantastic argumentation, throwing some numbers without any explanion Just some points from myself:TS definitely needs to go down, he was never that fast, not at PSV and surely not at Napoli => TS 83. On the other hand he's very fast over short distances and could claim low orange value there.TEC: 89 is too much, you can't be serious if you consider Mertens as a better technician than de Bruyne. I honestly see him at 86 max, he surely doesn't show such ball control (like in the video) on a regular level.TMW: Why 82? He mainly concentrates on his own attacking movements and is no winger-playmaker like Hazard..CON: 8?! He surely wasn't/isn't that consistent in his performances. He showed that last season and also at the WC where he lost his place in starting XI after failing to prove his class against Japan..

Well I thought Consistency covered the slight dips in his form, I gave him 8 Condition because in the last 2 seasons he's basically played every single game without any rest as Napoli had no cover for him.

About TEC: De Bruyne should be higher really, tbh he needs a whole new set because he's better now than he was with Wolfsburg in pretty much every way. Maybe my original value of 87 would be fine though, he still has excellent close control (although I think his DA should probably be higher than TEC)

TMW: possibly the thing that surprised me most about him was his understanding with his teammates, he gets plenty of assists (12 last season, 15 the season before according to Transfermarkt), his link up play is great and he's very good at making himself available for 1-2s. Also in Sarri's high pressing system, it's important that it's organised and every player knows exactly when and who to press, tactical understanding is very important, and Mertens is crucial in that as he's often the furthest player forward. Yes, he likes to dribble a lot and shoot from distance, but he definitely isn't a selfish player. I'd keep him on yellow at least, maybe 80 or 81...

Top Speed is possibly the hardest stat to rate in my opinion, it isn't very often that players run at their full top speed, and it's hard to judge at what point ACC ends and when TS begins, if you know what I mean. What I saw was a very fast player over all distances, probably faster than Hazard (although like De Bruyne, he obviously needs a new set too). I can decrease it, but the lowest I'd go is 84, and ACC can go up to 90.

Wow, fantastic argumentation, throwing some numbers without any explanion Just some points from myself:TS definitely needs to go down, he was never that fast, not at PSV and surely not at Napoli => TS 83. On the other hand he's very fast over short distances and could claim low orange value there.TEC: 89 is too much, you can't be serious if you consider Mertens as a better technician than de Bruyne. I honestly see him at 86 max, he surely doesn't show such ball control (like in the video) on a regular level.TMW: Why 82? He mainly concentrates on his own attacking movements and is no winger-playmaker like Hazard..CON: 8?! He surely wasn't/isn't that consistent in his performances. He showed that last season and also at the WC where he lost his place in starting XI after failing to prove his class against Japan..

De Bruyne in later years needs tec = 91, Merteens had great control of the ball, but he didn't show it often because he runs a lot with the ball and hurry up making bad decisions.

You could at least read the info, I wrote it myself and it explains some of my choices. Mertens has played as a striker in about 90% of the matches in the last two seasons, this set covers that period.

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